Strategies for Children, Inc.

CONTACT:

400 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, MA 02110
6173307382
strategiesforchildren.org

Margaret Blood, President

DESCRIPTION:

SFC was founded in 2001 by Margaret Blood, a child policy expert and advocate who, like many philanthropists, saw something that needed doing, and did it. SFC advocates public funding for education starting at age 3—a system of voluntary, universal, full-day, public school pre-K and Kindergarten; and to help ensure excellence, a statewide professional-development system of training, education, certification, and appropriate compensation in this field. Currently in Massachusetts, we have about 240,000 3-5-year olds, and schooling is not required until age 6. In 2000 only 38% were in pre-schools and child-care programs; today that is up to 70% but the quality is quite uneven—only 22% have access to programs accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and only 28% of community-based pre-K classrooms have a teacher with a Bachelors degree. Since 2005, SFC has been instrumental in working with the Legislature to secure over $115 million in increased state funds for early education and care; in that year’s budget, the Legislature unanimously created the nation’s first independent Board, and consolidated Department, of Early Education and Care (DEEC). In 2006 they created an Early Educators Scholarship Program. SFC is today a national leader in this field, recently hosting a national meeting of professionals from 26 states. So if you’re interested in an excellent charity working at the strategic level to improve the lives of children and families and to promote life-long success, check-out SFC.

(2008: CULTURE: Education: Formal: School-related)